With the complexity of some of the submissions, perhaps it was the simplicity of Zunheng Lai’s work that caught the judges’ imagination. Lai’s approach was a back to basics one, influenced by Tanizaki’s ‘In Praise of Shadows’ and the ideas crunching, intense sketches of Carlo Scarpa. Both, Lai says, are an approach to ‘convey a sense of the sublimity of everyday life.’ So we’re presented with rays of morning light through a door, an analysis of ‘being’ rather than ‘speculation’. The latter is addressed in his second image with everything recorded, both of a design and the passage of its creation; the taping, marks and staining that this involves ‘a testimony to the raw and spontaneous non-linear design process’. ‘Everything is registered, either visually or chronologically,’ said Fernie. ‘It really looks like he’s trying to work something out.’